When Swords Turn Black

Omari took off his grappling gun and his jacket. He was wearing a white shirt under it. The girl tied back her hair and took off her jacket and her grappling gun. She had a white bandage wrapped around her chest. She also had bandages around her fists, but those were yellow. They squared up against each other. "Are you sure you aren't too scared to hurt me?"

"That was a fight. This is a sparring match!" He threw an overhand. She moved her head and hooked his jaw. On impact, the punch exploded and ripped his jaw off before he fell to the ground and passed out. He woke up to the professor's cold touch. "You had enough?" The girl was squatted looking at him laid on the floor. 

She has more power than Samson. He quickly got up. "That punch. It exploded, didn't it?"

"Yep, I got sulphur control so I coat my fists in sulfur and ignite the sulfur with every punch."

"Alright," Omari squared up. "Let's go again." 

This time, the girl first with a jab. He duck, She's slower than Soren without lightning, and was going to get under her guard, but she kneed him in the face. When his head rose, she hit him with an exploding backfist that spun his head around. The teacher touched him and he got back up. "Again." And so they went at it again and again and again. Each time Omari would land no punches with an exploding fist, he would need to be healed. In an attempt to conserve her sulphur, the girl didn't make every punch explosive. She'd usually save the explosive punch for last, like throwing a regular jab, followed by an explosive cross, or the basic 1,2, as she would call it. Omari picked put on that combo thought, so she began to mix it up by throwing a jab, another jab then a cross (1, 1, 2) or a jab and a rear hook (1, 4) or even a jab, rear uppercut then lead hook (1, 6, 3). The last combo would knock him out straight, no sulfur needed.

After an hour of fighting though, all her sulphur had burned up, and she was starting to get both physically and mentally tired, so she said, "Wait, let's try something." She put her hands behind her back. "I'm not going to attack you anymore but you gotta try to hit me with all you got." Omari ran up and for half an hour tried to hit her head with the same 1, 2s; 1, 1, 2s; 1, 4s and 1, 6, 3s she was hitting with, but with her height, she could easily avoid his jabs, meaning the follow up punches also missed. So he switched and tried aiming for her body, but knowing what to expect made dodging those easy, too. She was still impressed by how quick he picked on the combos considering that when they started he had no idea of them, then she felt it. He hit a lead uppercut to her liver and followed with a cross to the centre of her chest, pushing her back a few steps.

"A five two," she said. "You used a five two!"

Omari froze and dropped his guard. "A what?"

"A five two, stupid. A lead uppercut followed by a cross. I didn't show you a lead uppercut and much less any combo that started with anything that wasn't a jab. You made that one up. Sure you throw your punches in terrible form and stance, but I can beat that into you later."

"So, should we continue?" Omari asked, to receive an excited nod. Another thirty minutes later and he would land exactly zero punches. The girl became more alert after he landed his first hits, so throwing new combos didn't catch her off guard the second time around. That didn't matter because he had learnt a lot at the end of the day. So before he parted ways with her, he asked, "Is it fine if we train together every Monday?"

"Why stop on Monday?"

She continued, "I'm fine fighting you every day. It's nice to see you grow quickly, and this is also good practice for my stamina and mobility. Never had to dodge so much in my life." She grabbed her head and cracked her neck. "And don't stress. I'm also good at stuff other than boxing."

"Really!" Omari asked, and she nodded. "Great, my name is Omari, by the way. What's yours?"

"Athena, Athena Ferren." She looked behind Omari for a moment. "Is that not the son of Lightning?"

Omari looked back and saw Soren approaching. "Another person with my father's name in their mouth." He said. "Let's go, Omari."

Omari walked off with Soren but asked, "Lightning?"

"It's what they call my dad. Don't mind it."

There were four hours before supper so Omari looked for Samson but He couldn't find him. He went back to the field alone and there he worked out. He did two 400m sprints, 100 weighted pushups, 100 weighted squats, and lastly, a ten-minute dragon flag before supper came. Supper was… fine. The hunger definitely improved its taste, but Omari couldn't help but think of his dad's cooking. After supper, the students went to the dormitories, took a shower, the clean ones at least, and went to sleep. To Omari's left was Soren, sound asleep. To his right was supposed to be Samson, but he was nowhere to be seen after supper. Where is he? Were Omari's last thought before falling asleep. 

He opened his eyes and was in a white room where he could see the back of his own head and his hair was white. He tried to turn around but saw himself turn around and now he was looking into his own eyes and they burned red like those of a salamander. He woke up, and he was back in the dorms. He didn't think those dreams would follow him to the slayer school, but at the end of the day; he wasn't a dream controller. Little did he know that slowly but surely, those dreams would control him and his fate.